I believe this workaround may satisfy everyone. If I open the Full Reader Search, and perform the same search within the current document, Reader produces a list of all instances (results) of the searched text. If you select one of those instances, the document advances to the relevant portion of the text. However, the search text may still not be highlighted. Select the same instance of the results list again, and the text now becomes highlighted. This seems to work regardless of the setting for "Enable search highlights from external highlight server" in the Preferences.

3. You'll get a list of the instances of your term within the document.

4. If you single click on any of the results listed, you'll have the same problem everyone is complaining about -- the search term won't be highlighted in the text. But if you DOUBLE CLICK on the result, the search term will be highlighted in the document. So basically, you can just work through the list of results, double-clicking on each one to see your search term in the document.

This is clunky, but at least it seems to work until Adobe gets their act together.

I updated to Adobe Acrobat 9.4.5 recently, and whereas the highlighting of text found in a text search used to work routinely, now searched text is highlighted only about 5% of the time when I step through a document, and I can't figure out why it does work a small percentage of the time. This is one of the major, common uses of Adobe Acrobat, and Adobe has left this issue festering for weeks now. It is making my work harder right now, and when I'm paying Adobe for this basic function, it is truly the sign of poor quality control at Adobe. Adobe, fix this problem soon, and stop listing this item as "possibly solved" until it is solved!

My activity had the Adobe Pro 9.4.5 update pushed to users late last week.Several knowledgeable users agree with the following error characterization: Adobe search will not highlight the first occurrence of a term on a page.If there is a second occurrence on a page it will highlight after clicking the Find Next arrow/button.Then, if you reverse the search direction, it will highlight the first occurrence on that page.If there is only one occurrence on a page, it will not highlight or FIND the search term.

If you think you are missing more occurrences per page of the search term, copy and paste the suspect area to a text editor and you will probably see the image you recognized as your search term does not actually contain the exact character string you searched for.

The appearance of a very light gray vertical line next to the search term seems to be entirely dependent on desktop/window color or theme selection or setup.The default Office/Windows configuration seems most likely to show this bar/pointer.I have never been able to see it with my low-intensity higher-contrast color scheme.

An interim work-around for Adobe Pro is to drop down the search dialog and select "Full Acrobat Search...Shift+Ctrl+F." Then, in the results window, select a hit-line twice and the search term should highlight in the document window.

OtherNMCI users/customers: this activity's local NMCI COR said it is best for all users having this problem to report it to the NMCI Service Desk as their priorities are set directly by the number of affected users.

There are two replies here that are partiallay helpful until a real fix is available: Use the Search function from the Edit menu (Ctrl-Shift-F) or use the navigation keys next to the search box. Each of these work ... sort of.

I doubt a complaint is valid by users of the free Reader, but those of us who are PAYING for the Pro version might have a leg to stand on. It's now been OVER a month, & I was originally promised by an Adobe rep that it would be a few days.

Adobe has more than dropped the ball here. They've thrown it in our face.

This thread, and this bug, have now been running 37 days - when is Adobe going to fix such a manifestly obvious error in a function that almost everyone uses? It is not "possibly answered" as indicated. How can we remove that status and get Adobe to pay attention?

This thread, and this bug, have now been running 37 days - when is Adobe going to fix such a manifestly obvious error in a function that almost everyone uses?

Hard to say. 37 days isn't long in the development world. Maybe the next release. Maybe the one after that...

dmwhk wrote:

It is not "possibly answered" as indicated

That is an automatic function of the forum software. As soon as someone replies, it's "possibly answered". Then again, possibly not.

dmwhk wrote:

How can we remove that status and get Adobe to pay attention?

Again you can't remove it butyou can always file a bug report although by now, I'm sure they are aware of it. This is a user to user forum and not a route to Adobe support so don't expect to see anything in here (although they've responded in these forums before).

Thanks for writing an article about this issue Evan! Hopefully it helps to draw awareness to the problem. I don't think Adobe is taking it too seriously. I've already started looking into alternative PDF viewers/annotaters.

As someone here suggested, I complained to the Better Business Bureau. I own the full Pro version, which is not cheap.

The BBB told Adobe to communicate with me.

I received the following from someone with poor English skills named Mradul Kumar [e-mail address removed]

Acrobat Engineering is working on these Bugs on priority and it should (not yet guaranteed) more likely be fixed in our next release(Acrobat 9.4.6). Next release should be coming somewhere around September month.

Please inundate Adobe & this person with your complaints.

This has gone on too long already, & to be told another 2 months (which we all know is a lie based on their past communications so far) is UNACCEPTABLE.

Secure - so you don't get infected with viruses and can keep sensitive information safe.

A Platform - so you can extend the Reader by creating your own value added capabilities for internal use or for resale.

FYI: The most important feature not listed above is that it also HIGHLIGHTS YOUR SEARCH TERM!

Just in my quick tests today, I've opened the same document in Adobe Reader 9.4.5 and Foxit Reader 5.0.2.0718 and Foxit is consuming 25%+ less memory than Adobe. The files appear more or less idential in graphical rendering, and Foxit lets you keep adding Callouts and Textboxes without having to keep clicking on the menu button. Foxit saved PDFs open in Adobe just fine.

Here's Adobe's response after telling the BBB that the Complaint I filed was really a technical support request:

Hello Bryan,

Thank you for choosing Adobe enterprise support. The two issues mentioned by you after running Acrobat 9.4.5 update have already been reported to Acrobat Engineering. Please find the Bug number along with details mentioned below.

Bug - 2899647 - Issue is if we search for some word in a multipage pdf document and when we click on occurrences that are present on other pages, the searched word is not highlighted in the page.

Bug - 2899192 - Issue is that after update from 9.4.4 to 9.4.5 it is no longer possible to select multiple pages in a PDF by command-clicking(MAC)\Control, Shift-clicking(WIN) on thumbnails in the Pages sidebar.

Acrobat Engineering is working on these Bugs on priority and it should (not yet guaranteed) more likely be fixed in our next release(Acrobat 9.4.6). Next release should be coming somewhere around September month.

There is another bug that Adobe won't even recognize because they can't duplicate it, but it only happens in 9.4.5 Acrobat Pro, & despite their nay-saying, it's a very REAL problem that THEY created with this disastrous update.

It's hard to explain, & most people in this thread are Reader users.

In short, while editing, the last edit made often pops up in a new edit, making it IMPOSSIBLE to continue with the current edit until going back (sometimes many pages) find the last edit that is skewing things. It's infuriating & adds so much time to the process of editing for clients that I'm ready to abandong Adobe completely.

This means I'll not use any Adobe products. If they can't make it function smoothly & do so in a timely manner, I have NO respect for this company.

Also, the "Find" feature is sort of working in that it does take the user to the page with the first matching text (but it fails to highlight the matching text) - clicking the "Next Find" button cause Acrobat to highlight the next (and subsequent) matching text ON THE SAME PAGE. If the next matching text is instead on another page, Acrobat again fails to hightlight only the first matching text on that page...

After reading these posts I no longer feel crazy. As suggested I called Adobe to find out if the fix would really launch on Sept 13 as stated in the article referenced here and opted to have them call me back rather then wait on the phone. They did return my call, but because I am only a single user in a large medical center and did not have the serial number to my Adobe Acrobat Pro (IS installed), they said they could not help me. Unless you have your serial number you cannot access technical support?? Really?? Why if I did not have the product would I call for help? And I didn't think you could do multiple downloads of programs anymore, so what's the difference? As a backup I also emailed the preson at Adobe w the same question. Will be curious to see if they answer or ask for my serial number. I am still amazed how a major software company could have such a glaring glitch and not find and put out

a solution sooner? This would never happen in our industry. If anything the whole team would work extended hours for resolution so that we could get it out to and keep our customers happy!

Here is a solution! I read this article and I was not having the issue. However I noticed the issue on my wifes computer, The only difference is that I run abobe in "Reading Mode" and my wife does not. She uses the search window at the top right. When I ran a search on her computer there was no highlight. In the "Reading Mode" like I use, I use the floating seach option that accessing shft+ctrl+F. Every word is hightlighted for me and if one misses, I just click the word in the floating search window and it highlights all the occuences of the searched word on the the page.

I hope this helps lessening the burden as we wait for Adobe to hear us. Good luck!

This was mentioned before... but it's not a fix, just a temporary band-aid. I don't like using that separate window, it just seems to get in my way and requires you to click on found search hits. Furthermore, Adobe doesn't need any more time than they've already had. What are they doing??...holding out until version 11 to give us basic search functionality (back)??? There is only one Apple Inc. in this world, knock it off Adobe.

See my previous post about Foxit Reader. One nice feature it has is tabs for all of your open PDFs. So far I love it.

Secure - so you don't get infected with viruses and can keep sensitive information safe.

A Platform - so you can extend the Reader by creating your own value added capabilities for internal use or for resale.

The Foxit Reader is a small, fast, and feature rich PDF viewer which allows you to open, view, and print any PDF file. Unlike other free PDF readers, Foxit Reader also includes easy to use collaboration features like the ability to add annotations, fill out forms, and add text to PDF documents. Foxit Reader has a small footprint that starts up instantly, renders PDF files quickly and uses very little memory, which is especially important with today's handheld devices. The Foxit Reader is packed full of convenient and easy to use viewing, editing and printing features that make document collaboration simple. Foxit Reader's secure platform insures worry free operation against malicious virus and provides a secure and reliable digital signature verification platform for exchanging electronics documents without putting the user at risk from falsified documents.